A study came out last week that compared emergency department physicians on their opioid prescribing patterns. They found that different physicians, even within the same hospital, could have wildly different rates of opioid prescribing patterns,

One of the most important issues facing public health today is obesity. Worldwide, approximately 30% of adults are obese, and costs around $2 trillion annually. A health concern with complex determinants and many intertwined causes, there’s

Motor vehicle accidents, including injuries and death, are of major concern to public health professionals. The National Safety Council estimated that, in the first 6 months of 2015, there were approximately 18,630 motor-vehicle deaths, and

What is the purpose of public health? Public health is a societal approach to protecting and improving the health and well-being of populations (1). Rather than focus on the health of individuals – that’s medicine

Despite the MMR vaccine controversy resulting from a series of now discredited studies linking the vaccine with autism, childhood vaccination rates remain high in the United States. In 2013, 92% of children aged 19 to

In the Northern hemisphere, cold and flu season usually strikes in late fall and early winter. Both are really unpleasant, but can’t be treated by antibiotics because viruses cause the common cold and influenza. Antibiotics

The best findings in science aren’t the ones that make you go “cool!”, they’re the ones that make you go “huh?” A study in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences reported a strange and unexpected